Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 21 January 2014
650. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Health the reason a single man cannot get private health insurance without maternity cover; the reason an elderly lady cannot get cover without maternity cover being on that policy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2823/14]
View answerThe inclusion of maternity benefit in all health insurance products is a statutory requirement, as part of a legal obligation on health insurers to provide a specific minimum level of benefit in all health insurance products sold. Minimum benefit is one of the key principles on which the Irish private health insurance regulatory system is based. Minimum Benefit Regulations, made under the Health Insurance Acts, require insurers to offer a minimum benefit to every insured person. The key purpose of the Regulations is to ensure the continued availability of the type of broad hospital cover traditionally held as a minimum by the insured population and to ensure that individuals do not significantly under-insure.
The Minimum Benefit Regulations ensure that all consumers obtain an appropriate minimum level of health insurance cover regardless of what plan they purchase and that every plan available is inclusive of a minimum suite of benefits/procedures, some of which are available to the market as a whole and some of which will be applicable specifically to either men or women. By way of example, the Regulations include provision for such medical treatments as a prostatectomy or testicular biopsy (in the case of men) and cervical biopsy or maternity services (in the case of women). Importantly, under Community Rating everybody is charged the same premium for any specific health insurance plan available on the market, irrespective of their age, gender and the current or likely future state of their health, and the plan purchased will include this minimum suite of benefits.
Therefore, the broad base line of procedures provided by minimum benefit should not be looked at in gender specific or age-related terms, but rather as a cohort of benefits and procedures that are important and of benefit to the community of the insured population and thus should be protected and provided as a minimum base to all.
